Nintendo Wii Price and Release Date: $250 on Nov. 19th

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/285027_nintendo14.html
(the article has been pulled)

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Nintendo gets Wii ready for holidays
Company plans to put console on market Nov. 19

By SETH SCHIESEL
THE NEW YORK TIMES

In a move that may allow Nintendo of Japan to take advantage of stumbles by its main rival, the company plans to announce today that it will release its new Wii video-game console in North and South America on Nov. 19, just as the holiday shopping season begins, and that the machine will cost $250 in the United States.

Nintendo executives said this week that the company also would announce today that more than 25 new games would be available for its video-game machine this year, a substantial portfolio from several genres that is intended to help the company broaden the appeal of its console. The company plans to ship 4 million of the Wii consoles worldwide this year.

Nintendo also will explain today a plan to expand the video-game market beyond its core of young men.

Today\'s announcement comes as Nintendo\'s main rival, Sony, has been forced to delay and scale back the introduction of its own game machine, the PlayStation 3, at least twice amid serious troubles with that company\'s new Blu-ray Disc technology.

Last week, Sony said that the PlayStation 3 would not be introduced in Europe until 2007 and that it would ship millions fewer units worldwide this year than it had promised. The top version of the PlayStation 3 is expected to cost around $600.

Another competitor, Microsoft, has sold more than 5 million of the Xbox 360 game console since its introduction in 2005 and hopes to sell more than 10 million by year\'s end.

Nintendo\'s Wii (pronounced we) is less technically ambitious than Sony\'s PS3, which is why it will cost far less and be far more available in stores this holiday season. To market the Wii, Nintendo hopes to make up in innovation and accessibility what the machine lacks in sheer silicon horsepower.

Nintendo is No. 3 in the console video game market, behind Sony and Microsoft. But while those competitors have largely focused on appealing to hard-core gamers, Nintendo is now trying to appeal to a broader audience.

"Our goal is to bring gaming back to the masses," Reggie Fils-Aime, president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, said in a telephone interview. "You see that in our pricing, you see that in the number of units we plan to make available this year and you see that in how we are positioning the Wii to appeal to every member of the household, including but not limited to the hard-core gamer."

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The Wii\'s major innovation is a wireless controller that the user can tilt and point to produce action on the screen. In a sword-fighting game, for instance, the player can simply swing the controller to thrust and parry with an on-screen blade; there is no need to master the complicated combinations of buttons and triggers that make many video games so intimidating to the reflex-challenged.

Nintendo intends to announce today that every Wii will come with a game compilation called Wii Sports -- including tennis, golf, baseball and bowling -- meant to show off the machine\'s intuitive controls. (Most consoles, including Nintendo\'s GameCube, do not come with games included.)

Nintendo plans to announce that 25 to 30 top-tier games will be available for the Wii this year. The most-anticipated game comes from Nintendo itself: an installment of the long-running "Legend of Zelda" series, "Twilight Princess."

Nintendo also will deliver a driving game called "Excite Truck" this year but will likely provide a minor disappointment to gamers in saying the next version of the popular "Mario" franchise will not arrive until 2007.

Nintendo intends to charge $50 for its Wii games, $10 less than the standard price for Xbox 360 titles and the same price generally charged for GameCube games.

Top games expected to be introduced for the Wii this year from third-party publishers include a version of "Madden NFL" from Electronic Arts, the sword-fighting game "Red Steel" from Ubisoft of France, an addition to the "Sonic" action series from Sega of Japan and a "Tony Hawk" action-sports game from Activision.

While Nintendo is certainly counting on the success of top-tier games sold at retail, many gamers may be at least as excited by the Wii\'s Virtual Console, which will allow players to download versions of older Nintendo games from the Internet.

Nintendo plans to announce today that about 30 classic games will be available for download when the Wii is released, including ones from the "Zelda," "Mario" and "Donkey Kong" franchises. Downloadable games will cost about $5 to $10 each.

More broadly, Nintendo hopes to make the Wii a living-room centerpiece by including various media channels meant to appeal to and draw in people who do not consider themselves gamers.

There will be a photo channel that will allow users to use the Wii to display digital photographs on television.

There also will be an easy-to-use interactive news channel and weather channel.

Perhaps most intriguing, the Wii will make it possible to browse the Web on the television. Microsoft\'s Xbox 360 does not permit this because that could negate the need to buy a Windows PC.

"We are including all of these capabilities as part of our overall strategy to expand the gaming market," Fils-Aime said. "Broadening the market is important because it will breathe new life into this business. Otherwise, this industry is moving down a path of being more and more limited to the hard-core gamer."

Very good news indeed. I see Nintendo getting there market share back.

A little pricier than I hoped for, but it comes packed in with Wii Sports which is the game I wanted most.
 
EDIT: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/topics/wii_preview/movie/lineup.html
 
This looks fun as hell! I\'m going to enjoy this.

no f\'n way.
you see that guy swinging it like a katana at the end?
thank god for first party titles

199$ would sell them millions more.

Yup. Look at all the cool videos here too: http://www.planetgamecube.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=7&threadid=17375
 
It\'ll launch with 30 VC games, 25 titles by the end of the year at roughly $50 a pop, 4 million systems by year\'s end. Wii Sports includes boxing (hope it plays like Punch-Out somewhat) and bowling now, too. And it\'s free.

i read more of the article on IGN, 10$ for classic titles?

it costs more than the GC ever did and the only major difference is the wiimote?  

i\'m very dissapointed.

price was the only reason i\'d consider getting one for zelda and such

It\'s ok. I\'ll buy two.
 
And if you think the only major difference is the remote, keep reading.

i did and fail to see anything else the GC couldn\'t handle.

I suppose not, at least, if they took the GCN, removed its guts and inserted the Wii hardware. Good point.

i havent seen tech specs, but i\'d be shocked if they were much different than the GC.

Anyway if the Wii games were available for any other system, I\'d buy them there. The games are what I\'m excited about.
 
For launch I\'ll probably get WiiSports (which should be packed in), Zelda (which just won me over in that video above), Rayman, Excitetruck, Trauma Center, Red Steel and Sonic.
 
Maybe some VC games. I had never heard of MSX (not the Sega Master System, right?) and so I\'m hoping some of those games make it to North America, too.
 
I do agree that it should be priced at $199 if they expect to sell to non-gamers. If I\'m Nintendo, I announce a price drop for this reason at the next E3, effective the day of the show (early June).
 
Far enough away not to piss off early adopters, and after having profited on the initial 6 million or so systems sold. The Wii costs reportedly ~$170 to manufacture. Add costs for marketing and WiiSports and maybe you hit ~$200, I dunno.

MSX was a NES-esque computer, though I\'m sure it was at least slightly more powerful.

mm: I would agree that $249.99 was too much for the Wii... if it didn\'t come packed with Wii Sports. A $50 value.

Essentially, the Wii is exactly what I expected price-wise. $199, with a game for $249.

The games don\'t knock my socks off visually, but they do look good. Go play F-Zero GX or Resident Evil 4 on the \'Cube and tell me that you\'re not at least somewhat dazzled. Wii is approximately twice as powerful as the \'Cube, and Nintendo seems to be using its power more for fluidity than jaw-dropping detail.

My big question is, how am I going to afford 5 or 6 launch titles? Christ.

Yeah and an assload of controllers. I\'m going to spend between $700 and $900.
 
Considering I\'ll have four controllers and seven games, I\'m all right with that.
 
I want to play tennis today. I hope I can pre-order, I want to give that a shot today.

It\'s all more expensive than I was hoping for.  I\'ll be holding off on a Wii until the price drops to $150 or so.  In the mean time the 360 will keep me plenty busy.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6157575.html
 
Click and refresh. If that\'s your idea of a good time.
 

Here\'s a random sampling of third-party games that will be out on day one: Call of Duty 3, Tony Hawk\'s Downhill Jam, Trauma Center: Second Opinion, Need for Speed: Carbon, Madden 07, Elebits, Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz, Rayman: Raving Rabbids, Splinter Cell: Double Agent.

In news that\'s a little pricey for me, $5 NES games up to $10 N64 games.  I\'ll buy some cheap games, but not many for N64 I don\'t think.
 

Now we\'re getting slides of the Wii Channels interface, which lets you start up a Wii or GameCube disc, as well as hitting the "Wii Shop Channel" to buy older games for the Virtual Console (and look for Super Mario World and Super Mario 64 at launch). After launch, Nintendo is estimating around 10 new games a month to be available.
Surprisingly, full pricing details are here. NES games will be available for 500 Wii points, Super NES games for 800, and Nintendo 64 for 1,000. Wait, Wii what? Looks like they\'re taking the same tack as Microsoft: Consumers part with fake money more easily than real money. A 2,000 Wii-point card can be had at retail for $20.